Where is the Jenny? Exhibit tells story of famed Beaufort shrimp boat from ‘Forrest Gump’
Tom Boozer knows almost everything about the shrimp boat that was plucked from Beaufort waters more than 25 years ago and set on a course for Hollywood fame.
Everything, that is, except where the vessel is now. His knowledge was poured into a current museum exhibit telling the boat’s story.
The 55-foot trawler Miss Sherri, then owned by Beaufort shrimper Jimmie Stanley, became the Jenny as christened by actor Tom Hanks’ character in the smash hit “Forrest Gump,” filmed in Beaufort. After the movie hit theaters and piled up awards, Stanley asked Boozer to build him a model.
Boozer, an artist and woodworker who crafts sought-after duck decoys, stayed on the boat for several days in 1995 while documenting its dimensions and quirks. He hand carved a scale model from wood leftover from when the original shrimp boat was built.
“I’m a nut for detail,” Boozer said. “I make sure everything is built properly to scale, just like it would be on the actual boat.”
The movie’s popularity has led to a total of 30 commissioned models, each crafted from longleaf pine and cypress to match the original.
Boozer lent his considerable knowledge and a model Jenny he built for his wife to a recent exhibit on display for the past month at the S.C. Maritime Museum in Georgetown. The exhibit celebrates the boat and its Hollywood stardom.
While indirectly a nod to the shrimping industry along the state’s coast, the exhibit’s focus is Miss Sherri and how it became an iconic movie prop.
The panels tell the story of how the boat was built by Capt. Charles Sutler and his son, Parker, on the banks of the Chechessee River in 1972. The exhibit tells how movie scouts picked the trawler during the Beaufort Water Festival in 1993 and the work to make the boat look weathered and disguise a place for Stanley to pilot the vessel during filming.
Museum visitors can read about Lt. Dan’s perch overlooking the ship and the hurricane scene filmed in Port Royal. They can see the two “Jenny” signs painted for the movie that Boozer accepted as payment for the model he made for Stanley.
The movie’s ongoing popularity drove the idea for the exhibit, said Justin McIntyre, the curator and maritime historian at the Maritime Museum.
“It’s still going strong today,” McIntyre said. “We thought it would be a fun idea to have the exhibit. Everyone is aware of the Jenny, but they might think she’s a prop, which in fact she isn’t ... . A lot of people have seen the movie and weren’t aware a lot of this.”
Boozer’s measurements, drawings and photographs of Miss Sherri might be among the only documentation of the trawler. After shrimping for a couple of years, the Stanleys sold the boat to Planet Hollywood at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
The new owners sailed the boat down as far as they could, dismantling much of the vessel before transporting it to be docked and displayed outside Planet Hollywood. Boozer thinks the work to strip the boat went too far and left the vessel in disrepair and susceptible to falling apart.
“She basically deteriorated from within,” Boozer said. “I was trained in actually boat building and to know what went into her — she shrimped for almost 30 years, and she could have kept going with a little bit of maintenance.”
McIntyre and Boozer didn’t know what became of the trawler. The boat had been rumored to be sinking in the water where it was displayed and the men feared it had been removed and scrapped.
But a Planet Hollywood spokeswoman said the Jenny still lives.
The boat was removed from the moat in 2014 to prepare for a large renovation project at the restaurant and remains in storage with no immediate plans to display it again, she said.
An iconic piece of Hollywood memorabilia now perseveres in the painstaking re-creations at Boozer’s shop on his small farm on Yonges Island south of Charleston.
Many of his customers call wanting a shrimp boat, not necessarily a piece of 90’s nostalgia from Forrest Gump. They ask for the names of grandchildren or spouses instead of Jenny.
A 1/4-inch scale model under glass like ones displayed in museums cost $8,500 largely due to the time to fashion a detailed replica from such small materials. A larger 3/8-inch scale model goes for $7,500.
The coronavirus pandemic has canceled many of the art shows Boozer travels to throughout the year that drive the bulk of his business. He estimates his sales are about a quarter of what they are during a typical year.
But he harvests from large spring and fall gardens and catches shrimp and fish from his dock in the neighboring tidal creek.
The extra time allowed him to contribute to the museum exhibit, with a personal appearance planned in October.
And another model Jenny is in progress on his workbench.
If you go
What: Museum exhibit on the Beaufort shrimp boat Miss Sherri used as “the Jenny” in the blockbuster movie “Forrest Gump.”
Where: S.C. Maritime Museum; 729 Front St., Georgetown, SC 29440.
When: Museum is open Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Admission: Free, donations accepted.
Details: For information, visit www.scmaritimemuseum.org or call 843-520-0111.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Where is the Jenny? Exhibit tells story of famed Beaufort shrimp boat from ‘Forrest Gump’."
